Chapter 2 - The Poison in the Lavender
“What did you give him?”
Mara’s expression did not change.
For one long second, she stood beside Noah’s crib with her hand resting lightly on the railing, as if Evelyn had interrupted nothing more serious than a nap.
Then she smiled.
“You really should stop asking questions,” Mara said.
Evelyn stepped farther into the nursery. “Move away from the baby.”
“You don’t have authority here.”
“I have enough authority to recognize a child in respiratory distress.”
Noah’s breathing was shallow. His chest rose in small, uneven movements beneath his blue blanket. A red rash had begun crawling along his neck and cheeks again.
Mara looked down at him with false tenderness.
“He’s always been delicate.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “He’s been poisoned.”
The word struck the room.
Mara’s smile faded, but only slightly.
“You have no proof.”
“I tested the lavender oil in the laundry room.”
For the first time, Mara’s eyes sharpened.
Evelyn noticed.
That was all the confirmation she needed.
“You’ve been soaking his blankets with it,” Evelyn continued. “Small amounts, over and over. Enough to irritate his skin. Enough to make him wheeze. Enough to weaken his heart.”
Mara’s voice dropped. “You should have stayed buried with your career.”
Evelyn took another step toward the crib.
“Give me the baby.”
Mara’s hand slipped inside her apron pocket.
Evelyn stopped.
“You don’t want to do that,” she said.
“Oh, I think I do.”
Mara pulled out a small glass dropper.
Evelyn recognized it immediately.
The liquid inside was pale yellow.
Concentrated.
Far more dangerous than whatever had been mixed into the lavender oil.
“Noah needs emergency treatment,” Evelyn said, keeping her voice low and steady. “If you give him that, he may not survive long enough for anyone to help him.”
“That is the point.”
Evelyn’s pulse thundered in her ears.
“Why?” she asked. “You raised him. You held him when he cried. You were there when his parents died.”
At that, something twisted across Mara’s face.
Not grief.
Resentment.
“You think I raised him because I loved him?”
“Then why?”
Mara laughed softly, almost sadly.
“Because I was supposed to be the one Dominic saw.”
Evelyn stared at her.
Mara moved closer to the crib, holding the dropper above Noah’s tiny mouth.
“After his brother and sister-in-law died, Dominic was broken. Everyone knew he would be. He needed someone gentle nearby. Someone who understood his grief. Someone who could become indispensable.”
“You made yourself that person.”
“I was already there,” Mara said. “I was already part of the household. I knew his habits. I knew when he came home. I knew what kind of woman he trusted.”
Evelyn felt cold.
“You arranged the accident.”
Mara’s lips curled.
“I didn’t arrange anything. I simply passed information to people who knew what to do with it.”
Noah whimpered weakly.
Mara looked down at him.
“His parents were careless. They thought they could leave the Vale organization behind. They wanted Dominic to take control without all the old blood around him.”
“Who are you working for?”
Mara’s face hardened. “Someone who understands what power costs.”
A sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Mara instantly changed.
Her shoulders trembled. Her eyes filled with tears.
Then she raised her voice.
“Please, Evelyn! Don’t hurt him!”
Evelyn spun toward the door.
Too late.
Dominic entered the nursery.
He had returned early.
Behind him stood two armed men from his security detail.
Mara dropped the glass dropper onto the floor, where it shattered. Then she stumbled backward, clutching her chest.
“She came after him,” Mara cried. “She said I was poisoning him. She tried to take him from me.”
Dominic’s eyes moved from Mara to Evelyn.
Then to Noah.
Then to the broken glass near the crib.
“What happened?” he demanded.
Evelyn pointed at Mara. “She has been poisoning Noah.”
Mara gasped as though she had been slapped.
“Dominic, please. You know me.”
“I tested the lavender oil,” Evelyn said. “The blankets, the detergent, everything she uses around him. It contains a toxic plant extract.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“Is that true?” he asked Mara.
Mara’s tears came faster. “I buy it from a small organic shop. I’ve used it for months. I thought it helped him sleep.”
“She knew exactly what it did,” Evelyn said.
Mara looked at Dominic. “She hates me because Noah loves me. She thinks I’m trying to replace his mother.”
Evelyn took a breath.
This was what Mara had been waiting for.
The perfect scene.
The disgraced surgeon accusing the beloved nanny. The cold fiancée standing over a sick child. The soft-spoken maid crying in the arms of the man who already distrusted Evelyn.
Dominic reached beneath his jacket.
Evelyn saw the gun.
“Don’t,” she said.
“Step away from the crib.”
“Dominic, Noah is getting worse.”
“Step away.”
Mara watched from behind him, and for one brief second, she smiled again.
Evelyn’s mind raced.
She could obey and let Mara control the room.
Or she could risk everything.
Noah made a choking sound.
His lips were turning blue.
Evelyn moved.
She grabbed the emergency medical kit from the nursery cabinet, shoved the oxygen mask over Noah’s face, and began checking his throat.
Dominic raised the gun.
“What are you doing?”
“He’s having anaphylaxis,” Evelyn snapped. “If you shoot me now, he dies.”
The room fell silent.
Even Mara stopped crying.
Evelyn opened Noah’s mouth gently. His airway was swelling fast.
She reached for the pediatric epinephrine injector in the kit.
But it was gone.
Her stomach dropped.
Mara had taken it.
“Where is it?” Evelyn demanded.
Mara blinked innocently. “Where is what?”
“The epinephrine injector.”
Dominic looked at the kit.
His face changed.
“Marco,” he barked. “Lock down the estate.”
Mara suddenly ran.
She bolted for the door, but Dominic’s guard caught her before she reached the hallway. The maid screamed, kicked, and clawed at his arm.
“Let me go!”
The struggle tore open her apron pocket.
A small injector fell onto the floor.
Dominic stared at it.
Evelyn snatched it up, checked the label, and drove it into Noah’s thigh.
For a terrible moment, nothing happened.
Then Noah coughed.
Once.
Twice.
A thin cry escaped his throat.
It was weak, but it was a cry.
Evelyn nearly collapsed with relief.
Dominic stood motionless near the door, his gun lowered at his side.
Mara was still fighting the guard.
“You don’t understand!” she shouted. “He was never supposed to survive!”
Dominic looked at her.
And the room changed.
The grief-stricken uncle disappeared.
The man who ruled Chicago’s shadows returned.
“Take her downstairs,” he said quietly.
Mara stopped struggling.
“Dominic—”
“Take her downstairs.”
His voice was not loud.
It did not need to be.
As Mara was dragged away, she looked directly at Evelyn.
“You think you won?” she whispered. “You have no idea who already knows about the baby.”
Then she was gone.
Dominic turned toward Evelyn.
Noah was breathing more steadily now, his tiny fingers curled around hers.
For the first time since their engagement, Dominic looked at Evelyn not with suspicion, duty, or distance.
But with fear.
Not of her.
For what might have happened if he had not believed her.
“I almost shot you,” he said.
Evelyn did not look up.
“Yes,” she said.
May you like
And somewhere below them, behind the locked steel door of the Vale estate’s underground security room, Mara Bell began to laugh.
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